A hotel worker is behind bars after he stole close to £10,000 from his employer

Barry Dixon, formerly of Sandling Road in Maidstone, made false transactions to his own debit card months after he started working at The Bull Hotel, in Wrotham.

The 26-year-old, who worked as a restaurant manager after joining in March 2014, carried out 34 fraudulent transactions between July and January.

He was caught after he tried to process a fraudulent refund worth close to £400.

His boss challenged the transaction and Dixon claimed it was due to a customer being charged the wrong amount.

This arose his employer's suspicions and further checks revealed he was lying.

From his 34 fraudulent transactions he has stole £8,394 and he was arrested by police in January this year.

Dixon pleaded guilty to one count of theft and was sentenced to two years in prison.

PC Toby Hawkins, the investigating officer for this case, said: "Dixon was stealing on a regular basis by inventing refunds to customers, some of which amounted to hundreds of pounds.

"He had only been in his job for a very short time but chose to repay the faith shown in him by abusing the trust of his employers.

"Theft is never a victimless crime and the sentence passed by the court will hopefully make Dixon think long and hard about his actions."